I built my first cMoy earlier this year, and it came out really great for my first attempt at building a headphone amp. The only problem was that it’s a poor match for the headphones I use. My headphones are all efficient low-impedance models (Grado, Ultrasone) that don’t require a lot of voltage. What they need is more current. The basic cMoy design doesn’t provide this, at least not with the OPA2132A OpAmp. I soon learned though that several DIYers have built similar “cMoy-esque” amps based on the circuit used in Grado’s RA1 headphone amplifier, which uses an NJM4556 (aka JRC4556) OpAmp, good for 70ma of current per channel. I decided to try building one, and I wanted it to be a little different. So I built it in a cigar box.

There was quite a bit of drilling and cutting involved, and I destroyed a couple boxes in the process. The volume knob is installed where the cigar maker’s medallion was previously located, which had their logo. For the circuit, I took some ideas from both the cMoy and the RA1 clones. I used some pretty high-end hardware, such as the Neutrik locking 1/4″ jack. It wasn’t because I thought it was necessary, but because it was easy to mount to the cigar box.

The result? Not very good. It’s unique, and looks interesting, but it doesn’t work very well. I ended up building two of them, and both are very noisy. Copper shielding on the second build helped, but not a lot. It might be all of the wiring needed to connect everything, or just the result of a poorly engineered DIY project based around a potentially “cranky” OpAmp, but it just isn’t a great amp. So I’ve kept the second one as a “show piece” while the first gets picked away at for spare parts. Even though it was ultimately a failed project, I’m glad I attempted it. For my next headphone amp, I’ll be using a professionally-engineered and designed circuit based around a PCB which should help ensure success.